And boy, we were close to a goalie fight Wednesday at Consol Energy Center. Then, as quickly as referee Kyle Rehman could reel in Marc-Andre Fleury, the opportunity flitted away — which, on a more evolved level, is a lot more awesome.

Really, the immediate reaction of Rehman and Francois St. Laurent, and delayed reactions of everyone else involved (except, maybe, for Fleury) suggested that sometimes, upper-level function wins out. It's worth remembering, particularly this week: Fighting, a lot of the time, is stupid — especially when it involves guys who, by definition, do it next to never. Fleury and Montreal's Peter Budaj both have scraps on their resume, but goalies are goalies.

It's funny to watch them fight. It's also reasonable, say, to hope out loud in the media room, at the heat of the moment, for one of them to throw a Sugar Ray Leonard-esque bolo punch.

"I think part of everybody wants to see that, because it's fun to see goalies go," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said, "but I think both teams are happy both their goalies aren't hurt."

And the Penguins had a lot more to lose; Fleury is the midst of another solid regular season, and backup Jeff Zatkoff's next NHL appearance will be his 11th. Budaj was in the game because the Canadiens' skaters let Carey Price down.

The ordeal started with 5:10 remaining in Pittsburgh's 5-1 win on a standard scrum in front of Pittsburgh's net. Rene Bourque shoved Brooks Orpik into Fleury. Things escalated. Brandon Prust came in for a cross-check. Crosby got involved. Chuck Kobasew and Daniel Briere tied each other up for appearances' sake. Basic enough.

Throughout, though, the goalies were eyeing each other — then Fleury bolted. Near Pittsburgh's blue line, he threw an ultimately unsuccessful deke on Rehman, then took off his mask. Budaj, mask already off and rolling up his sleeves, actually made it over center ice before St. Laurent hauled him in. Something was going to happen, and then nothing happened.

Marc, do you wish it went down?

"Yeah, sure. I wasn't going there for fun, you know?"

Were you aware that Budaj might have martial-arts training?

"No, I wasn't, but I (if I was) probably would've kept my helmet on for sure. … Maybe (the refs regaining control) was a good thing, then."

It's impossible to think that wasn't at the forefront for those guys. Rehman actually said he'd had enough ugliness for the week, according to Fleury. So maybe they've evolved a little, too. And maybe we got a glimpse at the league's newfound distaste (and pending criminalization) for Emery-on-Holtby idiocy.

Budaj, meanwhile, said there were no hard feelings to be had.

"No, no. Nothing at all," he said. "I heard he was a nice guy. Nothing personal."

Pretty calm. Pretty rational. Most of the time, that's a good way to be.